Grant Brown first female to head homebuilders association

Longtime Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority President and CEO Larry Cox celebrated his final board meeting before retirement with the announcement that Southwest Airlines is adding a flight next summer.

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. plans to ask the Memphis City Council sometime in February or March to close the city’s defined benefits pension plan to new hires and those city employees with less than 10 years of service.

Shelby County Schools board members voted Tuesday, Dec. 17, to start the process of considering the closing of four more schools for the 2014-2015 school year, bringing the number of schools that could close to 13.

Ray’s Take If it’s not another country defaulting on their debts it’s political gridlock on economic issues here or ominous predictions about the Federal Reserve. The news seems to be featuring more than its share of scary economic news these days.

Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is the passenger in a Cessna. He’s headed to visit his dad in north Canada for the summer. The pilot dies of a heart attack. Brian crash-lands the plane in a lake surrounded by a dense forest. Can he survive?

WASHINGTON (AP) – A prominent business group filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging government rules that require federal contractors to display posters telling workers they have a legal right to form a union.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Federal Reserve has sent its strongest vote of confidence in the U.S. economy since the Great Recession struck six years ago: It's decided the economy is finally strong enough to withstand a slight pullback in the Fed's stimulus.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate lined up Wednesday to give final congressional approval to legislation scaling back across-the-board cuts on programs ranging from the Pentagon to the national park system, adding a late dusting of bipartisanship to a year more likely to be remembered for a partial government shutdown and near-perpetual gridlock.